Paper vs. Plastic Park Hopper tickets

[forgetyourtroubles!]

Hi,
I just got my order from Hotwire (fast and cheap! PHP 7 DAY WAS $302) My only disappointment is that the park hopper tickets are cardstock paper with a valedine strip on them. Do they hold up for 7 days??? And fast passes and water parks, etc? What if they get too bent up to use? Will disney reissue us more tickets? We are planning on using 4 days this trip and 3 days next trip and...I don't know if these cardstock tickets will go the distance. They definately look real and have various characters on them. I wish they looked like our MNSSHP tickets. Maybe I'm just being goofy!

 

[CarolMN]

AFAIK, only Disney sells park tickets on plastic and even they sell the paper tickets. All the discount brokers use the "cardstock".

IMHO, you have nothing to worry about. Just keep a copy of the back of the tickets. If you lose them or if for some reason they become "unreadable", you can get them replaced at Guest Services.

However, unless you plan to run them through the washing machine several times or run magnets across the strip on the back, it's not likely you'll have a problem with them being unreadable. That "cardstock" as you call it is really quite tough - we've had lots and lots of tickets and never had a single problem with durability.

Best wishes -

 

[forgetyourtroubles!]

Thanks! You made me feel much better.

 

[SomeSayImGoofy]

We had three plastic and one paper pass last week. The CM at the FastPass machine at Test Track told me that the mag strip on the paper ones actually hold up better than the plastic ones (just keep 'em dry).

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[luvsTink]

How did you order from hotwire? I was on there site and don't see park tickets. Am I missing something?

 

[Ilovestitch]

Annual passes are the same cardstock and they last a whole year! But MVMCP are hard plastic cards and only good for 5 hours?? Go figure I think the plastic cards are expensive to produce and that's why most passes are paper. I work at AAA and we sell the paper ones. I beleive you can buy the plastic ones at the Disney Store, or the UPH is plastic of course b/c its on your KTTK card.

 

[WDWAurora]

I'm nearly positive plastic ones are only for UPHs. We've bought all different sorts of tickets during the past year (due to different people joining us) including APs, PHP, PH, etc and never had one plastic ticket. Some were purchased through the disney store (AP vouchers ARE plastic), AAA, and disney and all were the paper. The paper is supposed to be waterproof to a certain extent and our APs held up for over 75 uses each, so you should be fine for 7 days even if you park hop a lot (that's why our number is so high, from hopping). Keep them in the little paper sleeve though, it protects against damage to the strip from magnets and helps keep them from getting bent.

 

[tjmw2727]

Originally posted by WDWAurora
I'm nearly positive plastic ones are only for UPHs. We've bought all different sorts of tickets during the past year (due to different people joining us) including APs, PHP, PH, etc and never had one plastic ticket. Some were purchased through the disney store (AP vouchers ARE plastic), AAA, and disney and all were the paper. The paper is supposed to be waterproof to a certain extent and our APs held up for over 75 uses each, so you should be fine for 7 days even if you park hop a lot (that's why our number is so high, from hopping). Keep them in the little paper sleeve though, it protects against damage to the strip from magnets and helps keep them from getting bent.

Just yesterday I bought 2 six day PHP at the Disney Store and they are indeed hard plastic. My AP is paper as are previous PH and PHP passes. Knock wood I have never had a problem with a pass - even my AP about to expire!

I do second the recommendation that you copy the back of the pass and keep it in a safe place.

TJ

 

[F5CHASER]

This may sound a bit silly but one of my main reason for usually going with a package including tickets is so my park admission is on the same card as my room key. To me, it's just much easier to keep track of one thing as opposed to two!

 

[forgetyourtroubles!]

luvsTink
I joined Hotwire savings club for one month for free (reg. price $7.95/month I think). Join the club and then you will see a link for Theme Park tickets. You can cancel your membership at the end of the month and they won't charge you. They also offer dining vouchers for many restaurants at Disney.
http://www.hotwiresavingsclub.com/hsc/index.asp

 

[SueM in MN]

Even though they look like cardstock, they are actually a thin mylar material They are very durable (if you try to tear them, you'll find they don't tear). So, you don't need to be concerned about durability.

 

[WDWAurora]

Originally posted by tjmw2727
Just yesterday I bought 2 six day PHP at the Disney Store and they are indeed hard plastic. My AP is paper as are previous PH and PHP passes. Knock wood I have never had a problem with a pass - even my AP about to expire!

I do second the recommendation that you copy the back of the pass and keep it in a safe place.

TJ

That's so interesting! I wonder if it's a recent change (I haven't been in about 3 or 4 months) or if it's because they're for 6 days? I've never seen those....and I saw the book way back when we bought the last ones there...Awesome! I miss the plastic APs!! I like the photo id on them better than the finger scan.

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

The only plastic cards I see are those that are encoded onto resort keys (usually UPHs, but any ticket that can be sold by a hotel desk clerk can be encoded on the cards), complimentary 1 day park hoppers given to cast members, and the ones that come from the Disney Store.

As someone who works at the turnstyles, I prefer the cardstock tickets to the plastic ones. The cardstock tickets tend to not demagnetize if bent, however, I've almost never seen a plastic card that has been bent and still works.

Also, don't let the magnetic stripes on the back of your passes touch each other. This will make them MUCH more likely to demag. (same goes for credit cards). Just keep the passes all with the front/back facing the direction, not back to back, and you should be all good

 

[mareed]

I also like the paper for the park hoppers so that I can write on them how many days are left so I remember for the next trip. This is much harder to keep track of with the plastic passes!

 

[sun]

In July after drenching the paper park hopper tickets in the Typoon Lagoon, I dried them using the hair dryer. I was worried about being stopped by the card reader at AK next day. But the card reader was able to read it correctly and I was able to use the next 3 days with out any problem. Still I prefer the plastic tickets that comes with UPH (same as room key).